An input method editor (IME) is a computer application that assists a user to input texts at a computing device. An IME may provide several input candidates based on received inputs from the user. The inputs and the provided texts may be the same language or different languages.
For example, the user may input one or more initial English characters of a word or phrase and an IME, based on the initial characters, provides one or more complete words or phrases for the user to select a proper one.
For another example, an IME may also assist the user to input non-Latin characters such as Chinese. The user may input Latin characters through a keyboard. The Latin characters may be a spelling of the Chinese characters. The IME returns one or more Chinese characters based on the spelling to the user to select a proper one. As the current keyboard usually only supports inputting Latin characters, the IME is useful for the user to input non-Latin characters.
The input candidate selected by the user can be inserted into various other computer applications, such as a chatting application, a document editing application, a gaming application, etc.
Typically, an IME only provides input candidates in the form of text, and a single source is typically used to identify the input candidates, regardless of the type of application with which the IME is being used.